ATS Search Function, what is the deal.

I have previously posted This Thread in the Board Business section. Nil
response.

That's fair enough, I don't expect every little issue to be dealt with, however, in an effort to minimise the potential for thread duplication the
search function could do with a major overhaul.

I would also like to add, as being relatively new, that I find there to be a depth and breadth of information on this site to be peerless. This
information would be more accessible if the search function was enhanced somewhat.

Finally, to all those who have posted and complained "been done" or "use the search" or openly abused thread authors for the duplication do us all
a favor, flag and star the bejesus out of this thread. Get it to the front page then maybe we'll see some improvements. It's a bit rich accusing
accusing people of ignorance when you don't provide the tools to alleviate that ignorance.

This information would be more accessible if the search function was enhanced somewhat.

It's a rather new search function. I personally think the old one was better. You could sort by author, forum, etc and it was much more
robust because it actually searched the ATS database. The new one seems to simply use a customized Google search. It can often provide the most
relevant results (what you are looking for) much more quickly than the old search function, but I see no reason I couldn't just use Google to do it
in the first place. Now we have an "upgraded" media section which is nothing compared to the old one. It would have been more efficient and easier
to simply fix the bugs in the old media section.

Sometimes I log on at work... search works fine but on my computer at home, when I hit search... nothing.

Not minimal or unsortable items... absolutely nothing.

I really hope your thread gets some readers and responses because it's something that drives me absolutely nuts and like you, I haven't found any of
the "help" forums to be very helpful. When I've had problems, it's always been another member that was able to explain things.

People should really flag & star this if you want something to be done. I stopped using the search a while back. Never could get anything out of it.
I use the new topic firehose, browse through there. Or if I see a topic Ilike, some times I'll give a quick response so I can look it up in my post
section.

I have a strong suspicion that people's major problem with the search function is that they're not doing it right. I can't count the number times
someone has claimed they searched and couldn't find "anything." (Well, I *could* count the number of times if I'd started at 1 when I first
noticed it. What I mean is I'll be damned if I'm going to try.)

And then someone else comes along and points out 7 different threads on the exact same topic, 3 of them within the last 2 hours, and 4 within the last
6 hours. Nobody ever says, "What the **** were you searching for?" I think there are two distinct possibilities why the search didn't work: 1) they
didn't use it; 2) they used the precise same phrasing as their own thread's title, which is different from the other 7.

Anyway, I've never had a problem with it. I've always found more threads than I'd ever care to read on the exact thing I searched on. So I'm
always mystified that anyone couldn't find "anything." So I guess I'll remain doubtful until someone actually does ask, "What the **** were you
searching for?" and gets an honest answer....

If you go to the new topics page right under that is new topic fire hose hit that and it will show all the posts for the last 12 hours. I check there
before I post anything. People don't usually jump you for double threads if it hasn't been in the last 12 hours.....well except the ones that have
nothing better to do.

Originally posted by Klassified
Go to google, put in your search term, and type "ATS" after it. That's as good as it gets.

Uhhh...or you can do it properly by typing

site:abovetopsecret.com search terms

But that's basically what the ATS Search does...it's nothing special. It just looks pretty.

Uhhh...sometimes google's site search function goes haywire. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't, it does weird things. Which is why I also
use the aforementioned. Which I originally got from Zorgon, and is easy to use.

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